Carbon baseball team takes yet another title

Joe Via, catcher for the Carbon High baseball team and 3A MVP, smacks a Pine View pitch into the outfield during a championship game in St. George at Dixie State College's Bruce Hurst field in May.

Even after the school year has ended, Carbon High athletics finds a way to pull itself back into the news after taking home their fourth 3A championship title of the year in May, with the completion of an incredible season for the baseball team.

This time, Carbon High catcher, Joe Via, helps Carbon County gain even more attention for it's baseball supremacy by becoming the 3A MVP for the entire state.

Via, a seasoned baseball player whose been playing since he was eight years old, captured the MVP title after yet another incredible baseball season for Carbon High.

"Joe Via is probably the best hitter in the state," commented Carbon High baseball coach, Lane Herrick after a landslide win during the playoffs.

Anyone who's seen him hit would admit that this is most likely true. It doesn't matter if it's 3A, 4A or 5A, Via could easily be better than any of the other MVPs.

"I wasn't expecting anything like that," said the extremely humble Via when he heard what his coach had said about him.

It is undeniable that Via has a strong arm and deadly accuracy when it comes to hitting any pitch thrown at him. Anyone in the crowd can see that Via stands out with his talent for a game that has been designated to be America's favorite pastime.

Even the high school pitchers that come up against him seem to be afraid of throwing him a decent pitch in fear that he'll hit a homer straight over the fence and cost their team a run.

Most pitchers find it easier to give Via a base on balls than take the chance of him hitting yet another home run or even a grand slam. Because of this, Via was walked over 30 times this year but still managed to rack up an impressive eight home runs and a .459 batting average for the season.

The CEU baseball team will definitely suffer greatly once again, as another one of it's local prospects goes out of state for college.

Rather than attending CEU, Via decided on the full ride scholarship offer given to him by Kansas City Community College.

Via is said to have been given several sweet scholarship offers, but said that he decided on the community college due to the strong standings of the team, among other things.

Making it as far as the major league draft is a current goal for Via, along with many other high school players, but anyone who watches him play, can easily see that he definitely has the talent and potential to make it to the major league.

Even though Via is extremely humble when it comes to his talents, he still believes that if he keeps working as hard as he does now, the major league draft isn't that far fetched, and many agree.

Once he makes it as far as he can in the majors, Via said he wants to finish college and become an electrical engineer. But with the talent he has, he might just make a career for himself as a major league baseball player, possibly even being drafted by his favorite team, the Boston Red Sox.

Carbon High seems to have what it takes for producing major league material. Maybe it's the great coaching or the love of the game in Carbon County, but with last year's graduating pitcher, Troy Grundy, being drafted by the Dodgers and Joe Via soon to be drafted by somebody, maybe there's something in the water.

Luckily, Carbon still has a few more prodigies left among the ranks for next year, including Aaron Sandoval, the tough little sophomore, soon to be junior, who is sure to have a strong high school baseball career; Chase Julian, the upcoming senior and amazing shortstop for the team; and who could forget Adam Martinez, the incredibly strong pitcher, who is also an upcoming senior, that pitched two complete games, 14 straight innings during the championships and did so with the accuracy and precision of a pro.